380 Homes To Be Built On Defunct Escondido Country Club Golf Course

Thursday, November 16, 2017

Above: The site of the former Escondido Country Club golf course, where a development called "The Villages" is proposed, July 3, 2017.

Aired 11/16/17 on KPBS Midday Edition

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Alison St. John, reporter, KPBS News

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The Escondido City Council may have ended a five-year battle Wednesday over whether to allow development on the now-defunct Escondido Country Club golf course.

After a five-hour hearing, the council voted 3 to 2 to approve a developer's plan to build 380 homes on the former fairways. The golf course was bought in 2012 by developer Michael Schlesinger who shut it down the following year saying it was no longer financially viable.

The Escondido course is zoned for housing and according to the zoning could have up to 600 homes built on it. Schlesinger previously won a court battle against the city of Escondido over the right to develop the land.

Photo credit: New Urban West

Part of the plan for "The Villages," a housing development proposed by New Urban West for the former Escondido Country Club golf course. Nov 2017

Opponents had given up their hopes of regaining the golf course but pushed for a smaller number of houses on the land. The approved development will include two-story buildings in a neighborhood of single-family homes but is designed with buffer zones of green space between the new homes and the old.

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